Project Information

Unit costs of health and social care

The popular annual Unit Costs of Health and Social Care volume is mainly funded by the Department of Health, with a contribution from the Department for Education. The publication is widely cited and is downloaded in part or in ful at least 600 times each month. Data from these volumes are used by central government departments to develop policy, and by local authorities and SCIE to inform policy implementation and practice. NICE costing guidelines recommend the use of the Unit Costs of Health and Social Care. These volumes have also had a major impact on research; more than two-thirds of economic evaluations that have taken place in England and were published between 2008 and 2012 have used our unit costs to underpin their analyses.

Each year we draw on a wide range of routine data collections, as well as research, to produce the best nationally-applicable unit costs for more than 100 health and social care services. The data are presented in a clear and concise manner that shows the component parts of the unit cost and how we arrive at the final figure. Where possible, we also provide workload information. This allows a number of calculations for different ‘units’: per working hour for a social worker, for example, or per hour of face-to-face contact. Within the programme we also aim to improve the data available. Recent work has included improvements in the way ‘overheads’ are calculated for local authorities and NHS Trusts, and better estimates of the costs tied up in land and buildings (capital costs). Each year, the Editorial and short articles published address estimation methods or issues around the use of data.

The Unit Costs of Health and Social Care Programme is supported by a Working Group which meets once a year. This currently includes representatives from the Department of Health, Department for Education, SCIE, as well as some of the foremost researchers working in this area, from King’s College London, the University of York, the London School of Economics and the University of East Anglia.

The Unit Cost of Health and Social Care volumes have been published annually since 1993. The current volume, and those going back to 2003, are available from here. A feedback form to help can be found here; your comments will help us improve the volume and unit cost estimates. In particular, we would like to encourage all bands of health or social care professionals to participate in a survey on time-use. This will enable us to calculate the costs of patient-related activity.